Before forensics, DNA, and CSI we had dollhouses—an unimaginable collection of miniature crime scenes, known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Created in the 1930s and 1940s by crime-fighting grandmother Frances Glessner Lee, the Nutshells helped homicide detectives hone their investigative skills. These surreal dollhouses reveal a dystopic and disturbing slice of domestic life, with doll corpses representing actual murder victims, or perhaps something that just looks like murder. Despite advances in forensics, the Nutshells are still used today to train detectives. Of Dolls and Murder explores the dioramas, the woman who created them, and their relationship to modern-day forensics. Legendary filmmaker and true crime aficionado John Waters narrates this tiny world of big time murder.